Timeline of the Presidency of Barack Obama (2009)

From KeyWiki

The following is a timeline of the Presidency of Barack Obama from his inauguration as President of the United States on January 20, 2009 to December 31, 2009. Visit the main page on Barack Obama's Presidency here...

January

• January 20 - Minutes after the administration of the Oath of Office, Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, issues an order suspending last-minute federal regulations pushed through by outgoing President George W. Bush, planning to review everything still pending.^[1] In one of his first official acts, President Obama issues a proclamation declaring January 20, 2009 a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation. Obama enacts a pay freeze for Senior White House Staff making more than $100,000 per year and announces stricter guidelines regarding lobbyists in an effort to raise the ethical standards of the White House.^[2]

• January 21 - Obama revokes Executive Order 13233, which had been initiated by the Bush administration to limit access to the records of former presidents.^[3] At 7:35 EST on January 21, Obama retakes the Presidential Oath of Office, again administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, before four print journalists.^[4] Obama issues instructions to all agencies and departments in his administration to "adopt a presumption in favor" of Freedom of Information Act requests,^[5] reversing earlier policy set by former Attorney General John Ashcroft.^[6]

• January 22 - President Obama signs an executive order announcing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp within a year and signs a prohibition on using torture and other illegal coercive techniques, such as waterboarding, during interrogations and detentions,^[7] requiring the Army field manual to be used as a guide. He issues an executive order entitled "Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel," governing the limitations on hiring of employees by the executive branch to qualified individuals only and placing very tight restrictions on lobbying in the White House.

• January 23 - Obama ends the funding ban for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad, also known as the "gag rule" or the Mexico City Policy.^[8] He orders the first two Predator airstrikes of his presidency.^[9]

• January 24 - Obama produces his first weekly Saturday morning video address available on whitehouse.gov and YouTube,^[10]

(like those released during his transition period)[18][19] a policy compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats.^[11]

• January 26 - Obama signs his first two Presidential Memoranda concerning energy independence, directing the Department of Transportation to establish higher fuel efficiency standards before 2011 models are released and then allowing states to raise their emissions standards above the national standard.^[12] That night he gives his first formal interview as president to Al Arabiya.^[13]

• January 28 - Obama makes his first visit to the Pentagon as President, meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.^[14]

• January 29 - Obama signs his first bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which promotes fair pay regardless of sex, race or age. Lilly Ledbetter, the plaintiff in the employment discrimination case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. joined Barack and Michelle Obama at the signing ceremony.^[15]

• January 30 - Obama signs a presidential memorandum launching the Middle Class Working Families Task Force to be led by Vice President Joe Biden.^[16]

• January 31 - Obama speaks at the Alfalfa Club annual banquet.^[17]

February

• February 3 - Obama nominates Senator Judd Gregg to be Secretary of Commerce, after Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination.^[18] Tom Daschle withdraws his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services,^[19] and Nancy Killefer withdraws her nomination as Chief Performance Officer, both citing tax problems. Obama grants five television interviews accepting responsibility for the nomination mistakes and talks about the economic stimulus bill.^[20]

• February 4 - Obama announces that companies receiving large amounts of federal bailout money through the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) program must cap top executive pay at US $500,000.^[21] Obama signs the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 reauthorizing and expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).^[22] Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar cancels 77 leases sold by the previous administration to oil and gas companies, while letting 39 leases stand.^[23]

• February 5 - Obama speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast.^[24] The Washington Post publishes an op-ed by Obama entitled "The Action Americans Need," which deals with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.^[25] He also takes his first trip as president on Air Force One to Williamsburg, Virginia.^[26] Obama overhauls the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, renaming it the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.^[27]

• February 6 - Obama announces the creation of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.^[28] Obama also issues an executive order backing the use of union labor for large-scale federal construction projects. ^[29]

• February 7 - Joe Biden makes the administration's first major foreign policy speech at the Munich Security Conference.^[30] Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama make their first trip to Camp David.^[31]

• February 9 - Obama travels to Elkhart, Indiana to discuss the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,^[32] and returns to the White House to give his first nationally-televised press conference.^[33]

• February 10 - Obama travels to Fort Myers, Florida to discuss the Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the area's unemployment problems,^[34] and is joined by Governor Charlie Crist.^[35] Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar temporarily halts a Bush midnight regulation that opens the Outer Continental Shelf to offshore drilling for oil and gas.^[36]

• February 12 - Obama travels to Springfield, Illinois to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln and speaks at a Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration.^[37] Judd Gregg, Obama's nominee for the office of Commerce Secretary withdraws his nomination for that office.^[38]

• February 13 - The First Family spends a weekend in their former home of Chicago, Illinois.^[39]

• February 15-22 - Hillary Clinton travels to Asia on her first trip abroad as Secretary of State,^[40] visiting Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul and Beijing.^[41]

• February 17 - The White House launches Recovery.gov to explain the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including a video address from President Obama.^[42] Obama signs into law the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act in Denver, Colorado.^[43] He also approves a deployment of 17,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.^[44]

• February 19 - Obama makes his first trip abroad as president to Ottawa, Canada, where he speaks with Prime Minister Stephen Harper about environmental issues, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and other US-Canadian relations.^[45]

• February 21 - The Department of Justice rules that detainees at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan do not have the right to use U.S. courts to challenge their detention, upholding the Bush administration's position on the issue.^[46]

• February 23 - Attorney General Eric Holder, charged with overseeing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, visits the facility.^[47] Dennis Ross is appointed as the Secretary of State's special adviser for the gulf and Southwest Asia.^[48]

• February 24 - Obama speaks to a joint session of the members of Congress. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal gives the Republican response.^[49] Prime Minister of Japan Taro Aso also meets with Obama at the White House.^[50]

• February 25 - The United States Senate confirms Hilda Solis as United States Secretary of Labor.^[51] Obama nominates former Governor of Washington Gary Locke to become United States Secretary of Commerce. The Secretary of the Interior cancels leases for oil shale development on 1,900,000 acres (7,700 km2) of federal land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

• February 26 - Obama reveals his proposal for the 2010 United States federal budget.^[52]

• February 27 - Obama delivers a speech at Camp Lejeune on his plans for troop withdrawals from Iraq.^[53] The Obama administration through the Department of Health and Human Services starts the process to repeal or modify a "midnight rule" conceived to protect health workers who refuse for conscience reasons to provide health care.^[54]

March

• March 1-7 - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves on her second foreign trip to Egypt, Israel the Palestinian Territories, Belgium, Switzerland and Turkey.^[55]

• March 2 - Secretary of State Clinton pledges $900 million of humanitarian and development aid to the Gaza Strip and West Bank at a donor conference in Sharm el-Sheik.^[56] Obama nominates Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to be Secretary of Health and Human Services and appoints Nancy-Ann DeParle as White House Health Czar.^[57]

• March 3 - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown visits Obama at the White House.^[58] Obama restores a provision of the Endangered Species Act requiring that federal agencies consult the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and/or the National Marine Fisheries Service before taking actions that could harm endangered species.^[59]

• March 4 - Obama issues a memorandum limiting the possibility to grant no-bid contracts to private businesses.^[60]

• March 5 - Sanjay Gupta withdraws his name for Surgeon General.^[61] Vivek Kundra is selected by Obama as first Federal Chief Information Officer.^[62]

• March 9 - Obama overturns rules limiting federal money being used for human embryonic stem cell research.^[63] The President also orders all executive officials to consult with the Attorney General before relying on any signing statement previously used to bypass a statute.^[64] The Office of Management and Budget has given the Pentagon directives to delay procurement of aerial refueling tankers by five years and cancel plans for a new long-range bomber.

• March 10 - Obama delivers a major policy speech on education^[65] and holds his first meeting as president with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Chas Freeman withdraws from his appointment as chairman of the National Intelligence Council.^[66]

• March 11 - The President signs the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 on the same occasion he issues his first signing statement.^[67] VP Joe Biden announces the nomination of Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as "Drug Czar" and head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.^[68] Obama creates (by executive order) a White House Council on Women and Girls to be chaired by Valerie Jarrett to assure cabinet level agencies coordinate policies and programs that affect women and families.^[69] Obama officially announces Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry and Christopher Hill Ambassadors respectively to Afghanistan and Iraq.^[70]

• March 12 - Obama renews economic sanctions against Iran first imposed in 1995.^[71] Michelle Obama visits Fort Bragg, North Carolina on her first solo trip outside of the capital as First Lady.^[72]

• March 13 - The Department of Justice outlines a new legal standard for detaining the suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo. The "enemy combatant" definition is dropped and suspects shall be detained under international law.^[73]

• March 14 - Obama meets Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva at the White House. Obama announces the nomination of Margaret Hamburg to become Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.^[74]

• March 17 - Barack Obama meets with the Taoiseach of Ireland, Brian Cowen and the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Peter Robinson.^[75]

• March 18 - Obama speaks at a town hall meeting in Costa Mesa, California. The United States Senate confirms Ron Kirk, former Mayor of Dallas, as United States Trade Representative.

• March 19 - Obama appears on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.^[76] Just before midnight, Obama releases a video message to the Iranian people and government to coincide with Nowruz.^[77]

• March 20 - Obama and Biden meet with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Washington, D.C.^[78]

• March 23 - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveils the government's plan to help investors purchase toxic assets from banks.^[79]

• March 24 - Obama holds his second prime time press conference in the East Room of the White House, to discuss economic hardships, as well as the government's intentions to solve the global economic crisis.^[80] Also, the United States Senate confirms Gary Locke, former Governor of Washington, as United States Secretary of Commerce.^[81]

• March 25 - Obama meets with Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia.^[82] Obama also meets with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Secretary General of NATO, to discuss the upcoming summit, relations with Russia and the future of NATO.

• March 25-26 - Secretary of State Clinton travels to Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico to discuss US collaboration in the Mérida Initiative.^[83]

• March 26 - Obama holds an online town hall at the White House, a historic first in American Presidential conveyance.^[84]

• March 27 - Obama announces a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan.^[85]

• March 27-30 - Vice President Joe Biden travelled to Latin America, visiting Chile and Costa Rica. He attended the Progressive Governance Conference in Chile, along with the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, and the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and Norway.^[86]

• March 30 - Obama announces new plans and restructuring ultimatums for Chrysler and General Motors.^[87] Obama signs the Omnibus Public Land Management Act into law.

• March 31 - Barack and Michelle Obama arrive in London for G20 meeting with world leaders.^[88]

April

• April 1 - Obama meets British Prime Minister Gordon Brown,^[89] Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Queen Elizabeth II.^[90]

• April 2 - The G-20 summit begins in London, England.^[91] The President announces Robert Groves to be his candidate for director of the Census Bureau.^[92]

• April 3 - Obama meets French President Nicolas Sarkozy^[93] and holds a town hall meeting with French and German students.^[94]

• April 3-4 - Obama attends the two-day NATO summit in Strasbourg, France and two towns in Germany - Kehl and Baden-Baden.^[95]

• April 5 - Obama meets with Czech President Václav Klaus and Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek.^[96] He gives a thoughtful speech on nuclear proliferation disarmament to a public crowd in Prague. Earlier the North Korean government had launched a long-range multi-stage rocket.^[97]

• April 6-7 - Obama visits Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey, including a meeting at the Alliance of Civilizations forum.^[98]

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External Links

References